“Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made you out of clay, and after I eat some turkey, with dreidel I will play.”
In the 150 years since President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national American holiday, it has only fallen during the eight nights of Hanukkah a few times and will only fall during them again a few more times in the next thousand years.
The incidence has been called “Thanksgivukkah” by many and has others exclaiming, “Gobble Tov!”
Sundown Wednesday marked the beginning of the Jewish festival of lights, but Temple Am Shalom on Route 615 in Mentor hosted about 60 people the Friday before the double holiday for a combined dinner of fried potato latkes, turkey matzoh ball soup, brisket, challah — braided sweet bread — and pies.
“It’s a little confusing, but we’ll have fun anyway,” said congregant Mariann Rosen of Mentor-on-the-Lake, as she made her way down the dual buffet.
“We’ll roll with it.”
Assigned latke frier Gail Steindler of Mentor explained that the holiday is a lighter-hearted one as compared to Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah.
“In America, we turned it more to gift giving,” she said. Originally, she said, it was more about the chocolate gelt — coins used as rewards in the dreidel game.
The children at the celebration also were preparing for consecration.
Never again will they wait for Hanukkah Charlie the same night as they pick through (or passed) their can-ridged cranberry sauce.
“It kills two birds with one stone,” said Renee Blau, the temple’s co-spiritual leader.
Having to cook one less holiday meal probably sounds like a relief to any home’s cook, but more than convenience, the two holidays share a message.
“They’re both holidays of thanks,” she said. “You stand up for the rights of what you believe.”
The Pilgrims are said to have escaped from religious persecution in Britain and Europe.
Likewise, “The Macabees formed this small band army and they said, ‘No we’re not going to put up with this,’ ” Blau said of the history behind Hanukkah. “When somebody wants to take away your freedom, you fight for what you believe.”
In a temple nearly destroyed by the Syrian army, a lamp was kept lit for eight days with only enough olive oil for one, as the story of the Jewish miracle goes.
Rabbi Yossi Marozov of the Friendship Circle of Cleveland in Pepper Pike said the concurrence serves as an appropriate symbol of the two cultures coming together.
“It’s an extremely good fit. It’s an enlightened fit,” he said.
There’s no shortage of capitalization on the convergence: there’s T-shirts for sale and The Menurkey (a turkey shaped menorah designed by 9-year-old Asher Weintraub of New York City) has raised more than $48,000 on the entrepreneur site Kickstarter.

Lori Cahan-Simon of Beachwood created her own version, the Turkorah.
It’s even been rapped about.
Originally from Orange, Aly Viny, now of New York City, started the blog jap-rap.com (Warning: explicit content) two years ago.
“Thanksgivukkah won’t be around for another 77,000 years and I may be too old to rap by then,” she said.
The hullabaloo can be attributed to just how rare it is.
The Associated Press reported Thanksgiving and Hanukkah haven’t overlapped since 1888 and won’t again for 79,043 years.
However, Marozov said, the numbers are “complicated and fascinating.”
He said, “The Jewish Calendar is designed as a synthesis of both the lunar and solar calendars.”
He said a Chabad.org article that’s been “zipping” around email in-boxes is a great way to explain the rare phenomenon more fully.
“Chanukah and Thanksgiving: A Brief History” by Tzvi Freeman explains the dates have been complicated by the two different calendars (lunar Jewish and solar Gregorian,) leap years and FDR changing the date of Thanksgiving.
In Texas, the date wasn’t changed until later. So Texan Jews celebrated the two together in 1945 and 1956.
The day before Hanukkah has been thanksgiving in 1899 and 1918 so technically families lit candles the same night as they sliced turkey in those years as well.
The next times (also the day before) will be in 2070 and 2165.
Still, 2013 is special. Thanksgiving will take place inside the first full 24 hours of Hanukkah — indeed something to rap about.
“From a Jewish point of view, it’s incumbent upon us to spread more light, to bring the message of freedom and to bring it out in the open and celebrate it in greater fashion when it coincides with the holiday of Thanksgiving,” Marozov said.
Blau had a similar sentiment.
“You can be Jewish and American and both are compatible ... It’s about the freedom that everybody is able to share.”

About the Author

Devon covers Painesville City and schools, in-depth topics and splits his time on the copy desk. He's traveled around the world, worked in TV and loves coffee, music, theater and the OU Bobcats. Reach the author at DTurchan@News-Herald.com
or follow Devon on Twitter: @DevonTurchan.